The overarching purpose of the proposed Center for Aging and Policy Studies (CAPS) is to contribute to the NIA's goal of promoting research grounded in the demography and economics of aging. CAPS will support research in two thematic areas, "Age-Related Changes in Everyday Context" and "Demographic change, late-life well-being and public policy." The first is explicitly interdisciplinary and encompasses topics that connect physiological, psychosocial, cognitive, and sensory changes associated with the typical aging process to observable "external" choices and behaviors in domains such as meeting one's self-care needs, or choices concerning the type, frequency, and intensity of various activities, or choices regarding the nature of, and interactions with, one's physical environment. The second addresses ways in which individual choices and behaviors in a wide range of economic and demographic domains are influenced by various public policies and interventions, and how those choices and behaviors, in turn, themselves have implications for public health and for the design and effectiveness of public policies. CAPS faculty affiliates represent several disciplines, and all have a track record of scholarship in aging-related research, as well as a commitment to furthering the research themes and goals of the Center. At present, these researchers'work is supported by a total of 10 different NIH-funded grants, along with additional funds from other Federal sources. CAPS will contain three cores, an Administrative and Research Support Core, a Research Development Core which will support two midsized pilot projects in each year, and an External Research Support and Dissemination Core, a central activity of which will be to offer semi-annual Gerontology Education Workshops. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: CAPS will advance BSR's public health mission by encouraging research that informs the dynamics of age-related changes and economic well-being, in the context of demographic factors such as family composition, living and household arrangements, and disability and health at older ages. Our research will have implications for services to support older people, and for the design and targeting of policy interventions.